Critical+ under SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 LEDs

In my last grow in this tent (see diary V1) I did a side-by-side comparison of soil with biological nutrients against coco with Mills-Nutrients. Since the result was clearly better (=more harvest weight) with Mills on coco, I decided to do all plants this way now. The Critical + (speak: Critical PLUS) from DINAFEM-Seeds is my strain of choice for this round and I got them as clones of appr. 10-12 cm tall. The veg. time is only two and a half weeks with 18 hours of light (6 hours of darkness). The SANlight Q6W-Gen. 2 LED-lamps are dimmed to 40% power in the first week and then to 60% in the second week and are hung at a distance of 70 cm above the canopy. The feeding is done via drip-feeding and I give them appr. 20% MORE nutrients than recommended by Mills in their feeding schedule. All plants grow well, except one plant in a corner, which simply doesnt want to keep up with the rest.

After 2,5 weeks of veg. I switch to 12/12 hours of light/darkness in order to induce flowering. The SANlight Q6W-Gen. 2 LED-lamps are now at 55 cm distance to the top of the plants and are dimmed to 80% power. This is plenty of light for the plants to develop well and also to ensure the proper stretch at the beginning of flowering. The plants can take a lot of Mills-nutrients (appr. 20% more than recommended) and LOVE them, all plants have a healthy green color and grow fast. Only one plant (in the corner) has problems and doesnt want to grow well and now starts to wilt, I have no clue why this is happening.

During this week the SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 LED-lamps are still dimmed to 80% power and are kept at a distance of 55 cm from the top of the plants. The one plant that had problems died off and I put another clone in this place: one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company. The clone was already pre-grown to 25 cm in size and fits perfectly with the rest of the plants (=all Critical + from DINAFEM). I raised the EC to 1,3 in this week (=increased the dose of Mills-nutrients), because the plants have a light green color and should be darker in my opinion. All in all they develop well and continue to grow during the stretch period at the beginning of flowering. They start to fill out the space nicely and get lots side-branches as well.

During this week I increase the dimm-level of the outer two SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 LED-lamps to 100% (=three green lights ON at the magnetic dimmer), because the outer plants get less light than the middle plants where the light from the 4 LED-lamps overlaps. All 4 lamps are still kept at 55 cm distance from the plants. The Critical + plants from DINAFEM are growing lots of foliage now, so I defoliate them now and then in order to ensure a good airflow through the canopy. All Critical + plants have a nice green color and the one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company is doing well, too. I am happy with the whole development until now and keep the EC at 1,3 with the Mills-Nutrients. I cant wait for the first trichomes to appear. 😁

OMG! I spotted some aphids and fungus gants on the plants...horror! Immediately I put up more blue and yellow sticky traps (against the fungus gnats)and also introduce parasitic wasps to the grow. The wasps are the natural enemy of the aphids and hunt and eat them wherever they find them. In my opinion a natural remedy is always to prefer over a chemical spray, since this is my medicine I grow here and I do NOT want to chemical residue on my buds later. The SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 lamps are now at 50 cm distance from the top of the plants and are dimmed to 80% (inner two lamps) and 100% (outer two lamps). The Critical + plants from DINAFEM and the one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company are developing fine and have a nice healthy green color, therefore i leave the EC at 1,3 with the Mills nutrients. The plants start to have weak smell now and the faint aroma is DELICIOUS! I cant wait to try them when they are ready...😃

The Critical + plants from DINAFEM and the one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company are in full flower mode now. They get new flower clusters every day and form huge colas on each plant. They simply LOVE the light from the SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 LED-lamps, which are now at 50 cm distance and still dimmed to 80% (inner two lamps) and 100% (outer two lamps). The feeding is increased and Ultimate PK is added now, since the plants need extra P and K for flowering. All plants have a nice healthy green color and are looking GREAT. I still spot some aphids, but the parasitic wasps have them under control. The fungus gnats also have decreased substantially since I added the new yellow sticky traps to each pot. The relative air humidity is at 60% inside the tent, which makes me worry about bud-rot. The weather outside is a little rainy and I already put up an air-dehumidifier into the room where my tent is (decreased it to 50% in the room), but levels inside the tent barely drop under 60%.

The CRITICAL+ plants from DINAFEM and the one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seeds Company are doing FANTASTIC! The size of the top buds is astounding, they are as big as my hand now (see pic). The SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 lamps are still kept at 50 cm distance from the top of the plants and are dimmed to 80% (inner two lamps) and 100% (outer two lamps). The Mills nutrients do their job well and the plants look VERY healthy and grow new flower clusters EVERY DAY. The smell of the plants is now strong and has they typical Critical aroma...I love it! The Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company exhibits its first blue/purple coloration now and smells very sweet. Unfortunately the weather outside has gotten even worse and my air-dehumidifier in the room runs 24/7. Despite this the relative humidity inside the tent has risen even further and is now at 65%. This high humidity in combination with the huge size of the top-buds can be devastating now, because its the perfect breeding ground for bud-rot, which always starts to grow at the stem inside a bud which is too moist.

My worst fear has come true! 😱 I spotted some yellow sugar-leaves on a top bud and pulled them out of the bud. Since I felt no resistance whatsoever when the leaves were pulled, I carefully pulled apart the top-bud to looked at the stem inside it and saw a grey fuzz: This is BUD-ROT! 😭 The high humidity (always above 60% in the tent despite an air-dehumidifier in the room) has done its awful work and fungus has started to grow inside my buds. Since this process cannot be stopped and only gets worse when the plants continue to flower, I immediately stop giving any nutrients and start an emergency flush. This way I am able to harvest within a week, which is a little early, because I normally would have given them one more week of flower before I start the standard flush in the last week before harvesting. The plants have already grown such tremendously big colas under the SANlight Q6W-Gen.2 LED-lamps that I am happy with the result anyways. I hope that I can salvage most of the buds, without having to cut away a lot because of bud-rot. The LED-lamps are still kept at 50 cm distance and at the same dimm-level as last week. I could almost cry when I look at the HUGE buds and smell the DELICIOUS aroma inside my tent and already know that I will loose some of it too this damn fungus! The aphids have been battled successfully with the parasitic wasps and are almost gone now, so are the fungus gnats, but that is little consolation since I saw the bud-rot. 😢

The total harvest amount of 1571 gram could have been higher, if I had not stopped the grow early, because of bud-rot cause by too high humidity. The Critical + from DINAFEM has grown excellent under the SANlight Q6W-Gen. 2 lamps, as well as the one Blueberry Muffin from Humboldt Seed Company. The usage of 1000W light power (incl. dimming) in respect to the 1571 gram harvest weight is still an ASTOUNDING 1,57 gram/Watt. In the end I had 1209 gram of smokeable bud, because I lost the rest to bud-rot. This medicine will definitely keep me going until my next harvest! 👍😎